Rumours of a potential management buyout of Hands-On Mobile's EMEA division have been rumbling for a while now, but the story has finally broken.
MocoNews has interviewed Hands-On president Niccolo de Masi, who confirms that the division is being split off. However, it's seemingly more complex than a pure MBO or sale.

The EMEA division will be "transferred" to Connect 2 Media, the firm set up by former Hands-On EMEA president Eric Hobson.

Hands-On will retain a minority stake in the new company though, as will Connect 2 Media, and Acuity, with the latter reportedly investing $6.7 million into the company.

"We've effectively taken a smaller stake in a much larger entity… We don't consider ourselves to be selling anything to be honest," says de Masi.

It's a complex deal with plenty of cooks. But the real question is how the new outfit plans to ramp up and take on its rivals in the European mobile games business.

We hope to bring you more detail on that later today.

Meanwhile, Hands-On Mobile itself now has a clear North American focus, where it's been going great guns with Guitar Hero III Mobile. Earlier this year, it sold its Korean studio to Electronic Arts.